


Up All Night

by miscreant_rose



Series: Cancelled 'verse [10]
Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Babies, F/M, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-03
Updated: 2014-04-03
Packaged: 2018-01-18 00:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1408612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miscreant_rose/pseuds/miscreant_rose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another short drabble previously only published to tumblr, this is the story that spawned my Modern AU Mary x Matthew. And made me fall madly in love with them. I guess if you start at the end, you eventually find out how you got there. From prompt of "Modern Mary and Matthew arguing over who has to get up with George."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up All Night

Her eyes snapped open at the sounds of soft stirring from the bassinet at the end of the bed. She glanced at the clock. 3:06. Exactly one hour and ten minutes since she had collapsed exhausted back into bed.

There was another little grunt and gurgle from the bassinet. 

They didn’t tell you about this. All those pregnancy and parenthood books and classes. No one mentioned that no matter how insanely exhausted you were, within moments of becoming a mother, the slightest stirring of the baby would wake you. And wake her is all George had done tonight.

She could hear him smack his lips now. That was her two minute warning until a full on cry.

She was somewhere beyond tired, drunk from lack of steady sleep. She needed to move but it wasn’t quite urgent enough. Yet. Fairly certain even her brain hurt at this point, she wondered if she would be able to move.  

But she knew the answer. Even in this utter exhaustion, her body would function on autopilot. Up to fetch George. Slip out of the bedroom to the little alcove by the door where their glider was. No energy to put in the earbuds for the audiobook on the iPod she had parked on the table beside it. Instead, lean her head back, close her eyes, and doze as George fed. Struggle to burp him. Stumble back to the changing table to diaper wrangle in the tiny bit of light that slipped in through the cracked door (she had become quite skilled at in-the-dark-diaper-wrangling). George settled back in his bassinet. Resist the urge to throw herself down on the bed with the force it would take to wake Matthew. 

She turned her head to peek at where he was sprawled beside her. Breastfeeding was a struggle enough, but this part of it seemed incredibly unfair. Then again, his paternity leave was over, where all she was required to do for the next few months was muddle through the day with George.

There was a loud grunt and yawn and almost chirping sound from the end of the bed.

“How can he possibly be hungry again?”

She turned and looked at Matthew in surprise. His eyes were still closed. 

“Growth spurt,” she murmured and sighed. She started to sit up.

His hand reached out to brush against hers. 

“Stay there, I’ll get him.”

She frowned, trying to think of a protest. Or even to point out the logic of how she was the one with the food. But her brain was still stuck on processing the fact that he was even awake.

He was walking back to the bed, cradling the small bundle in his arms. “You, sir, are going to drive your mum right round the bend tonight.”

An answering half cry and lip smack.

He handed George over to her as he slipped back into bed.

She started to move, to make the usual stumble out of the room, but Matthew’s hand stopped her again.

“Just nurse him here,” he murmured, settling in on his side facing her, eyes drifting shut.

Her head was too foggy. Part of her had wanted to give into the ease of nursing him in bed, or even sleeping with him there between them, but she had never even dared mention the idea to Matthew. She feared he would find it too crunchy-granola natural parenting.

“I don’t want to disturb you.”

He opened one eye and peered up at her. 

“Darling, I have been awake with every feed and change, you cannot disturb me. You are being put through the wringer tonight and I’m rather helpless in the getting up to feed him department. Just nurse him here, and at least doze, I’ll change him when he’s done and he can sleep here between us. I’ll even take all the pillows off to be safe.”

Stunned he had actually even voiced this, she just stared back at him after breathing out a quiet, “Oh.” She didn’t move from his warm gaze until George managed a half-wail. Stirred to action she started to try and figure out how to arrange herself and him so that he could nurse, yet found it surprisingly simple as both their bodies seemed to already know the dance. Much easier in her dizzying state of exhaustion. And rather soothing, she decided as her eyes drifted shut.

Matthew’s warm hand came to settle half over hers where it cupped around George, and she could sense his thumb stroking against the baby’s back. His legs drifted across the mattress to tangle with hers.

"Love you," he murmured, and she hummed a soft sigh in return.

**Author's Note:**

> feedback and reviews always appreciated!


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